Dave Trott

Dave Trott: Advertising

Born in east London. Dave Trott went to art school in New York on a Rockefeller Scholarship. From there he began an illustrious career in advertising. As part of the creative team behind; ‘Hello Tosh Gotta Toshiba’, ‘Ariston and on and on.’ The Cadbury Flake ads, Pepsi  and many, many more.

Dave has  published several books sharing his ideas. He now speaks to audiences keen to learn his views on everything. From how to run agency departments to how to create successful campaigns. Dave constantly illustrates that creative thinking can be applied to almost every part of our lives.

Londoner in New York

Through his agency D&AD Advertising Concepts Workshops, Dave has trained hundreds of young creatives and is always well-received for his down-to-earth, practical advertising solutions.

He became a Londoner in New York, after winning a Rockerfeller Scholarship; to Pratt Institute in New York to study advertising. He mainly trained at Carl Ally Inc, and came back to London to work at BMP with John Webster for over 10 years. Dave became Joint Creative Director. Creating many still-famous campaigns such as Unigate’s ‘Ernie The Milkman’ with Benny Hill, Pepsi’s ‘Lipsmackinthirstquenchin….’, and Courage ‘Gercha’.  In 1980, he left to found Gold Greenlees Trott (GGT).

Agency of the Year

Dave’s agency, Gold Greenlees Trott (GGT) was voted ‘Agency of the Year ‘by Campaign magazine. Also winning ‘Most Creative Agency in the World’ by Ad Age in New York. For such memorable campaigns as Hello Tosh Gotta Toshiba, Aristonandonandon (quoted in a speech by Margaret Thatcher), The Lurpak Butter man, an LWT poster campaign. Also a multi-media campaign he created for free to help get the Third World Debt discussed by the World’s governments.

In 2004 he was given the D&AD President’s Award for lifetime achievement in advertising.

In 1990 Dave founded Bainsfair Sharky Trott with the Managing Directors of Saatchi & Saatchi. He went on to co-found Walsh Trott Chick Smith. In 2003 saw this company merged with The Gate and in 2005, Dave became Chairman until 2014.

Dave has been given the D&AD President’s Award, for lifetime achievement. He has also written three books: ‘Creative Mischief’, ‘Predatory Thinking’, and ‘1+1=3’.

Working through advertising with celebrities

Over his career Dave has worked with figures as diverse as Benny Hill and Ken Livingstone, Spike Milligan, Griff Rhys Jones and Steven Hawking. He has trained generations of creative directors who are working and winning awards today.

D&AD Creative Workshop

In the 1970’s Dave set up the ‘D&AD Creative Workshop’ course. He has trained hundreds of young creatives, many of whom are now London’s top creative directors and teachers. His book ‘Creative Mischief’ was inspired by the many blog articles he had written. This blog became very popular among students and industry experts.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Selection of Dave Trott’s award winning advertisements